Background
Cooper’s Family Brewing was born in an old boiler room in Cooper’s Seafood House, a landmark and roadside attraction in Scranton PA.
The restaurant has been owned and operated by the Cooper family since 1948. Jack Cooper, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother, Paul, have been thinking of adding a brewery since 1985.
Jesse Cooper, Jack’s nephew and Paul’s son, will serve as the brewmaster. He is a former research associate in the field of biotechnology. Jesse started homebrewing about four years ago.
Experience
We rolled into Scranton on a Wednesday afternoon and chose Cooper’s Family Brewing out of the couple of breweries in the area. The place is about a block long with multiple rooms adorned with all manner of collectables. You’ll find vintage toys and games, ocean scene of life-size underwater diver, whale hanging from the ceiling and a buffalo head in the bar.
The service was good, the beer drinkable and the food was good. Overall a very memorable place and worth checking out. If accessibility is an issue, it is a far distance getting from the parking lot to the accessible entry at the other end of the building.
We stayed in a very cool hotel, Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. It is a converted old train station that is beautiful and has a great bar. Steamtown National Historic Site is a railroad museum and heritage railroad that is worth checking out.
If you are heading to New York, Check out Mill House Brewing. If you are heading to New Jersey, check out Harvest Moon Brewery. Heading to Connecticut? Check out Two Roads Brewing.
